Continuous-web-drying machine



Oct. 28, 1930; c. J. MERRILL I CONTINUOUS WEB DRYING MACHINE Filed June27, 1929 Izwzziiv Patented Oct. 28, 1930.

PATENT OFFICE CABLE J. MERRILL, OF PORTLAND, MAINE CONTINUOUS-WEB-DRYINGMACHINE Application filed June 27,

The invention relates to a continuous webdrying machine includingacasing through which a web of paper, coated on one side, may beprogressively moved and in which said web is dried during its progress.

The chief object of the invention'is to enable the web to beprogressively moved through the casing in a sinuous path which is muchlonger than the casing, so that the floor space occupied by the casingmay be reduced to a minimum, to cause the coated side of the encasedportion of the web to contact only with air throughout its entireextent, so that the coating cannot be injured by contact with any solidsurface, and to be dried by the forcible impingement of air jetsagainstits coated side.

Another object is to enable the leading end of the web to beconveniently passed through the machine at'the commencement of thedrying operation.

Other objects will appear from the following description.

Of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section, showlng a drying machineembodying the invention, parts of the machine being broken away toreduce the length of the figure.

Figure 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig ure 1.

Figure 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig-.

ure 1.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary side View, showing morein detail conveyortensioning means shown by Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an enlargement of a portion of Figure 1, and shows theleading end ofa we The same reference characters indicate the same partsin all of the figures.

12 designates a casing having an inlet 13 for a web 14:. An endlessconveyor is supported by rolls in such manner that the conveyor moves ina sinuous path and has at least two oppositely facing elongated parallelstretches 16 and 17, adapted to support and feed in opposite directionsa sinuous encased portion of a continuous web 18 of v coated paper.Figure 1 shows the conveyor 1929. Serial No. 374,063.

conventionally by a relatively thin line, and the web by a thicker line.

The web-supporting side of the encased conveyor portion faces an airspace 8 (Figure 1) extending from end to end of the stretches 16 and 17The web 18 is placed on the conveyor with its coated side facing outwardand contacting only with air in the space .9, sothat the coating cannotbe marred by contact with any solid surface.

The machine comprises drying means for causing the forcible impingementof jets of impingement of drying air simultaneously on the coated sidesof the sinuous web portions supported by the conveyor stretches 16 and17, said means including a blower designated as a whole by 19, andperforated trunks 20 and 21, communicating with the blower and locatedat opposite sides of the two stretches 16 and 17,and trunks having airoutlets or orifices 22 (Figure 3) The trunk 20 delivers air jetsdownward through the air space .9 on the coated side of the encased webportion on the stretch 16, and the trunk 21 delivers air upward throughsaid air space on the coated si7de of the encased web portion on thestretch The conveyor preferably includes a delivering lower stretch 23,which extends through an outlet 24 in one end of the casing and isadapted to support, feed, and deliver an extension of the sinuousportion of the web, the delivered portion being designated by 18*. I

For convenience I call the stretch 16 the upper stretch and the stretch17 the intermediate stretch, the latter being between the upper stretch16 and the lower delivering stretch 23.

A conveyor which includes the several stretches 16, 17 and 23 may besupported and guided by the series of rolls 25 and 25, shown by Figure1, one or more of said rolls being power driven.

To change the direction of the leading end portion of the web 18, whenit is passing from the stretch 16 to the stretch 17 over a curvedportion of the conveyor backed by a roll 25,

I provide a deflector which is preferably pneumatic and includes aconduit 26, communicating with the blower 19 and havlngv a 1 dischargenozzle 27 arranged to blow the leading end of the web 18 shown by Figure5, against a curved portion of the conveyor, and cause said end tofollow the stretch 17.

To prevent the coated side of the web from touching the guide rolls 25 Iprovide a curved deflector 28, which detaches the web from the stretch17 at a point near said guide rolls, and guides the web on to thedelivering stretch 23, with its coated side facing the trunk 21. Thedeflector supports a portion of the web out of contact with the portionof the conveyor supported by the rolls 25 the exposed side of thedeflector-supported portion of the web contacting only with air, aspresently described. The coated side'of the web is caused to face theperforated end 21 of the trunk 21, so that drying air impinges thereon.The deflector 28 is preferably a curved smooth surfaced plate having aknife edge 29, adapted to detach the web from the stretch 17.

The web-supporting side of the delivering conveyor portion 23 faces anair space 8, which is a continuation of the space 8, and extends fromthe knife edge 29 to the outlet 24, as shown by Figure 1. The sinuousportion of the web backed by the deflector 28 and supported by thedelivering portion 23 of the conveyor, therefore contacts only with airin the air space 8.

the entire encased portion of the web between the inlet 13 and theoutlet 24 contacts only with the air, so that it is dried without beingmarred or affected in any way by contact with any solid surface.

The trunks 20 and 21 are preferably branches of a main trunk 30, andeach is preferably provided with a valve 31, whereby the flow of air maybe regulated or shut off. Any suitable means may be provided for heatingair supplied to the blower to facilitate drymg.

To tension the endless conveyor, or take up slackness therein, I providethe tensioning means shown diagrammatically by Figure 1, and in detailby Figure 4, said means including a pair of spaced apart idle rolls 32,journaled in fixed bearings 33, and bearing on one side of a stretch ofthe conveyor, preferably the stretch 17, an idle takeup roll 34, bearingon the opposite side of the stretch, and movable in the space betweenthe rolls 32, and devices for adj usting the takeup roll and mamtammg 1tm any adlusted p 051mm sald conduit communicating with the blower anddevices including bearings 35, movable in fixed guides 37, and adjustingscrews 38, engaged with the guides and bearings, as shown by Figure 4.The arrangement is such that the rolls 32 and 34 cooperate in forming inthe conveyor stretch 17 a loop 17 and thereby taking up looseness. Thedepth of the loop is variable by adjustments of the takeup roll. Theremay be similar tensioning means at other portions of the conveyor.

The delivered web portion 18 is wound or rolled on a winding spindle 39,the wound portion being severed and removed when the roll is ofsufficient size. To cool the portion l8 before rolling, I guide it in apredetermined path, by rolls 40, so that it passes beside a perforatedtrunk 41, supplied by a blower 42 with cool air, either at atmospherictemperature or artifically cooled, the air impinging on the web at apoint somewhat remote from the winding spindle.

To prevent communication of the strain or tension exerted on the web bythe rotation of the winding spindle, to the portions of the webassociated with the conveyor and with the drying means within the casing12, I provide means for loosely accumulating the web between the outerguide roll 40 and the winding spindle, said means including areciprocating looper, composed of a pair of idle rolls 43, between whichthe web portion 18 passes loosely, an oscillatory frame 44, adapted toswing on a center 45, the rolls 43 being carried by the frame, andmeans, as a crank 46 and pitman 47, for oscillating the frame. The rolls43 are thus reciprocated sidewise.

Below the rolls 43 is an endless secondary conveyor 49, carried by rolls5(). The upper v stretch of said conveyor is arranged to re- It will nowbe seen that the coated side of ceive the web dropping from the rolls15. The reciprocation of the rolls 43 and the movement of the upperstretch of the conveyor 49, in the direction indicated by the arrow,causes the accumulation of the web portion 18 on said upper stretch inloose plaits or folds, which are opened by the pull exerted on the webby the Winding spindle 39.

I claim:

1. AWeb-drying machine comprising an endless roll-supported conveyorincluding at least two oppositely facing stretches adapted to supportand feed in opposite directions portions of a continuous web of coatedpaper withthe coating thereof exposed, drying means for causing theimpingement of air simultaneously on the coated sides of said webportions, said means including a blower, and perforated trunkscommunicating with the blower and located at opposite sides of the twoconveyor stretches, and a pneumatic deflector adapted to change thedirection of the advancing end of a web portion passing from one of saidconveyor stretches to the other, said deflector including an air eringstretch, said conveyor being adapted to support and feed a sinuousportion of a web of coated paper with only the coated side thereofexposed, drying means for causing the impingement of, air on the exposedside of the sinuous web portion, a webde flector adapted to change thedirection of a web portion passing from the upper to the intermediatestretch of the conveyor, and a web deflector adapted to change thedirection of a web portion passing from the intermediate to thedelivering stretch.

3. A Web-drying machine comprising a casing, an endless web conveyor,means supporting and progressively moving the conveyor and a coated webcarried thereby in a sinuous path through the casing, sot-hat theencasedportion of the web is longer than the casing, the arrangementbeing such that one side of the encased web portion is exposed tocontact only with air throughout its entire extent, so that acoating'thereon may be dried without contact with a solid surface, and

means for causingthe forcible impingement of air ets on said exposedside to dry'a coating thereon.

4. A web-drying machine comprising a casing having at one end a webinlet, and at the opposite end a web out-let, an endless web conveyor,means supporting and pro gressively moving the conveyor and a coated webcarried thereby, in a sinuous path through the casing, so that theencased portion of the web is longer than the distance between the inletand the outlet, a portion of the conveyor being alined with the easinginlet, and another portion alined with and extending through the casingoutlet, so that a web inserted in the inlet is deposited on the conveyorand conducted thereby through the casing and the outlet, the arrangementbeing such that one side of the encased portion of the web is exposedtocontact only with air throughout its entire 3 extent, and means forcausing the forcible impingement of air jets on said exposed. side, todrya coating thereon, said coating being dried without contact with anysolid surface,

and delivered from vthe casing through said outlet. 7

5. A web-drying machine comprising acasing, an endless web conveyor,rolls support- 'ing and progressively moving the conveyor and a coatedweb carried thereby, in a sinu- -ouse path through the'casing, a curveddeto j-contact only with air throughout its entire extent, and means forcausing the forcible impingement of air-jets on said exposed side of theweb to dry a coating thereon, said coating being dried without contactwith any solid surface.

6. A web-drying machine'comprising a casing, an endless web conveyor,rollssupporting and progressively moving the conveyor in the casing, andproviding the conveyor and the encased portion of a coated web carriedthereby with sinuous portions includonly with air throughout its entireextent,

and drying means causing the forcible im-. pingement of air on theexposed side of the encased web portion to dry a coating thereon, saidmeans including a blower and two perforated trunks communicating withthe blower and extending substantially parallel with the stretches ofthe encased web portion, one trunk adapted to direct air jets againstthe exposed side of one of said stretches, while the other trunk isadapted to direct air jets against the exposed side of the otherstretch, the sinuous form of the said conveyor and web portionspermitting the drying of the encased portion of the web in a casingwhose length is less than that of said encased portion.

7. A web-drying machine comprising a casing, an endless web conveyor,rolls supporting and progressively moving the conveyor in the casing andarranged to provide the conveyor and the encased portion of the coatedweb carried thereby with sinuous pertions including substantiallyparallel upper and intermediate stretches, and delivering stretchessubstantially parallel therewith and .cluding the delivering stretchthereof, said meansincluding a blower and two perforated trunkscommunicating with the blower and extending substantially parallel withthe stretches of the encased web portion, one trunk adapted to directair jets against the exposed side of the-upper stretch, while the othertrunk is adapted to direct airjets simultanenously against the exposedside of the intermediate stretch and of the delivering stretch. v

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

CAR-LE J. MERRILL.

